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Armchair Travel

There's nothing like a good vacation, and summertime always makes me eager to travel. This summer, however, a complicated schedule and lack of funds are keeping me from exploring the world. Fortunately, I can be consoled with books whose settings and plots take me all kinds of places, even from my Denver living room.

Sometimes it's fun to read about the real-life adventures of people who are lucky enough to be traveling, either around the world or in our own backyard: The City of Falling Angels by John Berendt (Venice); Gone Bamboo by Anthony Bourdain (St. Martin); Great Plains by Ian Frazier (American West); On Mexican Time by Tony Cohan (Mexico).

A trip through time also enhances travel narratives; I'm fascinated by the way people and places looked to tourists in past decades and centuries: Roughing It by Mark Twain (American West, 1870s); A Time of Gifts by Patrick Leigh Fermor (Europe, 1930s); Passenger to Teheran by Vita Sackville-West (Persia, 1920s); The Land of Little Rain by Mary Austin (California, 1890s).

What books take you places? Do you have favorite stories about travel?